


such is love

by illiterateidiot



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Past Violence, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, also references to violent sex but again not explicit, discussing murdering each other in the afterglow bc it's hannibal and will and they're freaks, references to sex but not explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26456989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illiterateidiot/pseuds/illiterateidiot
Summary: I’m drowning in it, Will wants to say. The way I feel for you is deeper than the Atlantic and I will never come up for air.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	such is love

_I’m drowning in it,_ Will wants to say. _The way I feel for you is deeper than the Atlantic and I will never come up for air_. He does not say this. He holds Hannibal closer in his arms and hits him with a kiss to the side of his jaw with bared teeth that would feel like an assault to anyone else. Hannibal, though, leans into the feeling like it’s the only love he has ever cared to feel. There is a part of Will that wants to keep his teeth bared and rip out Hannibal’s throat; not to destroy him but to consume. Hannibal knows this. He feels the same way. But the desire to consume is outweighed by the desire to be known, and seen, and loved. So, Will holds him with a tenderness they could never share before without the promise of pain afterward and clasps their hands together to kiss Hannibal’s palm. It took some getting used to, the gentleness in their movements, the want they share unrushed and thought through rather than angry and violent. They can still be violent. A hand-shaped bruise wrapped around Will’s waist and the scar in the meat of Hannibal’s neck knows as much. But their violence no longer hurts in a way that tears them apart. They have found the balance of pleasure and pain.

“Are you ever afraid?” he asks. The words are muffled by his mouth on Hannibal’s skin and he would have it no other way. “That I can still kill you? That I could make that choice?” The silence from anyone else would have been worrying. If he were with anyone else, he would not ask this. He would have no reason to, and even if he did would fear their reaction. He does not fear Hannibal’s reaction because Hannibal, he knows, is simply considering the question.

“I’m not afraid that you will kill me,” Hannibal finally lands on. “It is something I imagine, and hope, you no longer fear from me. You could hurt me but choose not to. You take these hands,” he pulls Will’s hands closer to his neck. “That once sought to choke the life from me and make the choice to hold me with them instead. I take my hands,” and he takes his other, unclasped hand and gently touches the scar on Will’s stomach, “that once gutted you, and choose to touch you rather than rip you open. Every day is a choice, Will. One that I will continue to make until I die, or you tire of making the same one. Such is life, and such is love.”

“So what you’re saying,” he begins with a shiver as Hannibal continues to stroke the scar with unparalleled reverence. “Is you’re absolutely terrified, I’m just worth the risk?” Hannibal huffs a laugh and turns around in Will’s arms to give him a smile.

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s my answer too.”

A silence follows, but they have always been good with silence. Words are often shared between them, sometimes too few and sometimes too many, but they have never known each other as well as they have in the silence between their conversations. Will holds him with an affection that could make it seem as if the scars they have between them are not from each other, and they both know the tide could change at any moment with any reason. But rather than stand still in fear of the unknown, they bask in the devotion they share. Such is life, and such is love.

**Author's Note:**

> it's nearly 1am and i wrote this bc i'm thinking too hard about romance


End file.
